


Mirror Match

by Operator Yaku (TheHonkmaster)



Series: Infestation Series [9]
Category: Warframe
Genre: Blood, Body Horror, Descriptions of gunshot wounds, Emetophobia, Gore, Hurt/Comfort, Other, Violence, Vomiting, descriptions of body horror
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-02-18
Updated: 2018-02-18
Packaged: 2019-03-20 16:53:48
Rating: Explicit
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,008
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13721982
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/TheHonkmaster/pseuds/Operator%20Yaku





	Mirror Match

_“Fuck!”_ Yaku’ screamed. They clutched their side and fell against the wall, blood seeping between their fingers as their Tysis clattered to the ground. They slammed their hand against the emergency lockdown for the door and it shut with a resonating clang, muffling the gunshots beyond. 

Yaku’ sank to the ground with a gasp and gritted their teeth against the pain, struggling to hold in their cries. The line of bullet holes cut diagonally across their abdomen, starting at their left hip and curving upwards towards their back. The Drekar hellion had taken them by surprise and managed to take the Tenno out of the fight before they sliced it in two with a panicked Void beam.

“Huon,” they panted into their comms, “I’ve been shot. It’s– bad. I need backup. I can’t–  _hah–_ It really hurts. Please hurry,” they said, their voice beginning to waver.

“Stay where you are, don’t move any more than you have to. Send me your coordinates. Can I get to you easily?” The gunshots in the background told Yaku’ he was in the heat of battle; they knew they had to make this quick.

“I don’t know,” they whimpered, blinking back tears as they marked a waypoint. “I hit it– I hit the emergency close  _thing_  and the door, it’s shut, I don’t know if I can open it again but please hurry, I don’t–” They swallowed thickly. “I don’t want to die.”

“Don’t move. Try to keep pressure on the wound and tie it up if you’re able. Tear off a piece of your armor if you have nothing else. I’m on my way, just–” The burst of static as the connection cut couldn’t stop the fear in his voice from leaking through.

“…Huon? Huon, are you there?” they asked, their voice cracking. Their comms shut off and the static stopped, leaving them alone with nothing but the quiet burbling of the underwater tunnel’s entrance in front of them and the faint gunshots outside of the room.

Yaku’ looked down at their side. Dark red coated their hand and wrist as it spilled from their body and pain lanced through them with every movement. Their mind refused to acknowledge that the blood was actually  _theirs,_ prompting a strange sort of disconnect between what they saw and what they felt even as their fingers slid through the liquid. They pressed down on the wound and bit back a sob as it only worsened the pain.

_Why isn’t the Infestation working to heal me? Why can’t I focus long enough to flush it with Void energy? Why am I so_ scared?  _Why–_

“Oh,  _camin-titi._ So many questions,” sighed a familiar voice.

Yaku’’s head snapped up and there was Naki, standing at the edge of the water with its hands clasped behind its back and legs akimbo. They scrambled backwards only to find that they were already pressed as close to the wall as possible and moving only made them hurt even more.

Naki sighed again and shook its head. It remained an exact copy of Yaku’, not only with the slowly swiveling eyestalk, but now with a line of five bullet holes leaking blood from its side. Those it seemed to ignore, as if they were only for appearance and not life-threatening wounds. It took a step towards Yaku’, who drew their knees towards their chest with a whimper. “You don’t even know how your Infestation works, do you?”

“I–”

“No, you just exploit it because you can. How many times have you gone feral,  _camin-titi?”_

“Feral? I don’t–” Yaku’ started, their visible eye wide.

“How many times have you woken up someplace where you can’t remember how you got there? How many times have you woken up starving, parched, covered in blood? How many times have you shaken off the Infestation’s influence only to find yourself with yet another body or  _bodies_  – Tenno or Corpus or Grineer or even other Infested – resting at your feet? Do you even know it happens?” Naki took another step towards them, leaning in. “I’ll bet you don’t even know how many families you’ve shattered.”

“I’m a soldier, not a mathematician,” they retorted. “I’m not supposed to keep count, I’m just supposed to keep killing.”

Naki gave a short, humorless laugh. “You really have been indoctrinated, haven’t you? You’ve brainwashed yourself so thoroughly that the Orokin didn’t even have to try that hard to do it themselves. You don’t even think twice about your trauma because you’ve shoved it under seven layers of shit that you don’t want to sink your hands into. You put on this bravado, you present yourself as this tough, deadly Tenno who knows no fear and who faces their enemies and the Infestation with a stone-cold heart, ready to murder, but we both know that’s a lie and that you–”

“Shut up.”

“What?”

“Shut. Up. I don’t need you telling me this. I don’t  _care._ Caring gets you killed and I’m not about to let something preventable cause my death.”

Naki blinked at them. After a moment, a slow smile spread across its face. “Funny you say that, given that the first person you called for help was that Meridian eximus captain. You can’t hide your emotions from me,  _camin-titi._ I know you care for him. Now you’re bleeding out in a Drekar base all because you wanted to be on this mission with him.” It looked away from Yaku’ towards the door and its grin widened. “Speak of the Void,” it chuckled.

On the opposite side of the door Huon skidded to a halt in front of the console. Yaku’ could hear him trying to open it; each repeated command was denied access. “Yaku’? Yaku’, I need you to open the door,” he told them as the console’s harsh beeping grew more and more frantic.

Yaku’ hit the emergency lockdown again, hoping it would reverse the seal and the door would open. It did nothing, only prompted a half-formed laugh from Naki. Yaku’ glanced at their double suspiciously, then turned towards the door. “It won’t open! I hit the emergency lockdown, it didn’t work!”

They heard him hit the door. “Yaku’, can you hear me? Open the door!”

“I can’t, it didn’t work!” they called.

Naki spoke up. “He can’t hear you. I’m not finished talking to you,  _camin-titi._ I’ve stopped your bleeding and the pain until our conversation is over, and I’ve locked the door and essentially soundproofed this room until then as well.”

Yaku’ glared at it. “You’re  _sick.”_

“You can pretend to be this untouchable warrior all you like. You can pretend you don’t have emotions, or that they don’t rule your heart and mind, but you can’t hide yourself from me. I am a reflection of you,  _camin-titi._ I know everything about you. I know that despite all your perceived courage you’re just a lonely, terrified twenty-year-old controlled by the Infestation. You wake up from one nightmare only to find out you’re living the next,” Naki told them. “You can’t escape.”

A thud from the door drew the attention of the two. “He’s trying to break through,” it explained, “but he won’t be able to. He thinks you’re already dead, or close to it.”

Yaku’ stared at Naki in shock. “But I’m not! Naki, open the door! I have to tell him I’m not dead!” they demanded, climbing to their feet. Just as Naki said, they felt no pain and their bleeding had stopped. Their discarded Tysis lay within arm’s reach; they would only have to crouch to grab it, and with that information a plan began to form. 

Naki frowned. “I’m not finished talking to you.”

“You need to be. Huon is out there, he’s panicking, I can’t let him think I’ve died.”

“So you admit you do care for him, then?”

“That’s not the point! Open the door, Naki!”

“Mm, no. Instead…” it trailed off, its gaze moving to Yaku’‘s side. “I’ll do  _this.”_

A scream tore itself from Yaku’’s throat as the pain returned in full force and they crumpled to the ground, clawing at the fresh blood flowing from their wounds. Their next scream was cut short by a broken sob and they could hear Huon’s hysterical voice calling their name. They sucked in a breath and it forced itself from their lungs in another scream.

Naki knelt beside their writhing form and patted their shoulder. “He knows you’re alive now. He knows you’re in pain. I let him hear your screams this time. Are you ready to let me finish now?”

Yaku’ fixed Naki with a deadly stare. “Get  _fucked,”_ they snarled, rising to their elbows and knees.

“Ooh, tenacious, are we? Not for long. You’ve lost a lot of blood already. I can stop it,  _camin-titi._ I can stop all the pain, make it so you truly don’t feel anything. All I need is for you to give the wor–”

Yaku’ hurled themself into Naki; the two went flying backwards towards the underwater tunnel and the Void manifestation laughed, an unsettlingly gleeful noise, as it kicked the Tenno off of it. Yaku’ landed on their back with an agonized groan and coughed, one arm flung outwards near their Tysis.

“You’re fighting me with multiple injuries and an almost overwhelming amount of pain. What makes you think you could ever win?” Naki taunted as it stood.

It didn’t see the Tysis until a bolt was lodged in their forehead. Yaku’ roared as they fired over and over, filling the Void demon’s face with corrosive bolts that ate away at its flesh even as it cackled wildly. “Ohh, you win this time,  _camin-titi!_ You win this time! I’m so proud of you! You’re finally standing up for yourself!” it shrieked, staggering towards them.

Seeing their own face warping and melting proved to be too much for the Tenno; they turned away and vomited. Naki’s horrid laughter disappeared with its twisted form and Yaku’ dragged themself away from the underwater tunnel. The door slid open to allow Huon through and he immediately dropped to his knees beside them.

“Yaku’!? I’m here, it’s okay. I need you to stay awake, just like you told me. How many times were you shot?” he asked, producing several trauma patches, a roll of gauze, and a bottle of water from hidden spaces in his armor.

“Stay awake… Mm… five…? I think it was five times,” they mumbled. “It… hurts. Am I gonna die?” they asked softly, exhaustion finally overcoming them.

Huon’s hands shook as he poured water over their side to wash away the blood. Their complexion was losing what little warmth it had left, its deathly pallor becoming even more apparent to the Meridian eximus captain. The light on the violet channels running up their neck flickered an alarmingly pale shade and as he applied a trauma patch he realized their skin was cool to the touch.

“Huon?”

Behind them, outside of the room, a squadron of Meridian operatives turned a corner with medical supplies.

“Huon… it hurts…”

“You won’t die,” he promised. “You’ve survived worse than this. You’re supposed to outlive me; you told me that when we first met and I’ll be damned if I let you prove yourself wrong.” He lifted them onto a waiting stretcher and watched the medical operatives leave before turning back to the room and walking inside.

“…Captain? Is there something wrong?” one of the remaining operatives asked, taking a few steps towards him.

Huon crouched and inspected the blood and bile streaking the ground. “I thought…” he began, half to himself. “There was someone else in here. I heard the Tenno fighting with someone else, but… there’s no sign of the other person. No water splashed on the ground, no blood but the Tenno’s,  _nothing.”_

The Meridian operative frowned. “I don’t know what to say to that.”

“You don’t have to say anything. Let’s go.” Huon stood and began heading towards extraction; the faint whisper of  _“caring gets you killed”_ went unheard, and the room fell silent once again.


End file.
